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Islamic Iran - What is the general feeling toward America today in Europe and the Middle East
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| 30. |
22 Mar 2008 Sat 02:37 pm |
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Quoting libralady:
I did not make my point clear, I was not referring to Turkish history per se just because I mentioned a PhD in Turkish history, but I was talking about polictics and history.
There has been times on this site, and if you have been here 3 years you know well what I mean, that Westerners appear to know more about the goings on it Turkey than Turks do!!!! And then wonder why native Turks get upset.
Perhaps if Turks started to tell you and argue about the potato famine, or about the IRA you would know what I mean  |
Ok, I see your point. However it's not necessarily truth that Turks know more about Turkish culture than Westerners in all cases. I know next to nothing about Turkish history so I never discuss it on this forum. But saying that some Westerners who are genuinely interested in Turkish history know less about it than Turks is not a fair statement. Remember that Turkey uses lots of censorship even today. Could you bet your head that they didn't censor its history? That only historians with certain perspective can teach it?
Westerners, especially those interested in Turkish history and those who have access to differentiated historical sources, sometimes are more objective than Turks. Iąm not trying to belittle native Turks knowledge of history, but, speaking from my own experience, I know that although I do not have and never will have native English speaker's linguistic competence, I know more about linguistic processes of their language than them as I did my Master's degree in semantics. Thus, although I am not English, there are areas of English language where my knowledge is better than an average English person's.
It is the same with history. Being a Westerner does not mean that you know less than a Turk. Being a Turk does not make you a specialist in history. A person studying Polish history would have no problems pointing out my lack of knowledge of Polish history.
The problem here is that some members here take their point of view as the only correct one. They forget that history is not merely about facts, it's also about interpretation.
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| 31. |
22 Mar 2008 Sat 02:49 pm |
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Quote: The problem here is that some members here take their point of view as the only correct one. They forget that history is not merely about facts, it's also about interpretation. |
I tend to agree with you. There are some Turkish members here that know far more about US history that me. That is the beauty of education, everyone can learn and we can all offer different points of view and learn from each other.
The highest result of education is tolerance. Quote Helen Keller.
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| 32. |
22 Mar 2008 Sat 02:59 pm |
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Quoting Cacık: Quote: The problem here is that some members here take their point of view as the only correct one. They forget that history is not merely about facts, it's also about interpretation. |
I tend to agree with you. There are some Turkish members here that know far more about US history that me. That is the beauty of education, everyone can learn and we can all offer different points of view and learn from each other.
The highest result of education is tolerance. Quote Helen Keller. |
Nicely said!
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